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"  Remember Jake Bugg? He was young once. And sold loads of records, and jumped from headlining Nottingham&amp;#039;s Rescue Rooms to Wembley Stadium in a few years, and did everything in between from stints in rehab to lines of Fred Perry. Then it all went away: the once-organ of anti-X Factor caved in to Cowell&amp;#039;s shekels and filled in for a finally-decrepit Louis Walsh - Reputation. Over. But now, having sunned in Malibu with master of reformations Rick Rubin and an electric guitar, Bugg is back. And the craziest thing? Only the last part of that is true and it&amp;#039;s still the most bizarre. The world may move a mile a minute these days but to have already amp&amp;#039;d up and brought in the guy who mainlined hip-hop, spread the Chili Peppers and made Johnny Cash immortal - when Leona ain&amp;#039;t even got up off the ring floor yet - this all feels as premature as it does impressive. The only hope is that it doesn&amp;#039;t sound like Bugg&amp;#039;s fifth album when it&amp;#039;s just his second. Intro &amp;#039;There&amp;#039;s a Beast and We All Feed It&amp;#039; is a good-old Kentucky hoedown authentic enough to make us question Bugg&amp;#039;s Midlands beginnings. &amp;#039;Slumville Sunrise&amp;#039; has a nippy, jouncing &amp;#039;50s Johnny Cash-like guitar line but it&amp;#039;s all too whistle-stop to take in Bugg&amp;#039;s dejection (&amp;quot;This place is just not for me, I say it all the time / My friends they just ignore me, tell me never mind&amp;quot;). &amp;#039;What Doesn&amp;#039;t Kill You&amp;#039; is also fast and rocking, although this time its hopeful chorus is worth howling back and the haul-arseing simply improves it. Neither of those, fortunately, have that Hollywood polish we expect from Rubin and the album only shimmers like so a few times. &amp;#039;Messed Up Kids&amp;#039; stylishly swoops besides Bugg&amp;#039;s visit to his old hometown (&amp;quot;Kids are on the corner with no money, they sell their drugs and body / Everywhere I see a sea of empty pockets&amp;quot;); &amp;#039;Kingpin&amp;#039; loosens its hips as if it&amp;#039;s dancing to The Black Keys; &amp;#039;Simple Pleasures&amp;#039; finds him finger-picking like Frusciante and wailing his biggest chorus yet - the West Coast&amp;#039;s laid-back nature and Bugg&amp;#039;s don&amp;#039;t-give-a-f**k conviction combine here perfectly. Bugg proved his flair for a decent ballad on his debut with &amp;#039;Slide&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;Someplace&amp;#039;, and it&amp;#039;s well exercised again on Shangri La. &amp;#039;Me and You&amp;#039; falls right off the first record, while &amp;#039;Pine Trees&amp;#039; softly-softly peek at Mother Nature might work as one of the gazillion Hunger Games backdrops. &amp;#039;A Song About Love&amp;#039;, however, is Jake as upfront as the title suggests (&amp;quot;Like a constant reminder, I just want to find where you are&amp;quot;), with all the obvious sugared and strummy frills. It&amp;#039;s easy to poke at Bugg&amp;#039;s transparency but what makes these songs tick is their simplicity. What&amp;#039;s also noticeable is how vast his world has become since his success allowed him to leave his bedroom. The album takes on several themes, from the land of celebrity (&amp;quot;There are too many flashes and guards around me, there&amp;#039;s too little time and places to see&amp;quot;, &amp;#039;Me and You&amp;#039;) to anxiety and fear (&amp;quot;Out from the darkness your heartlessness haunts my future&amp;quot;, &amp;#039;Kitchen Table&amp;#039;) and the city he returns to after his glory (&amp;quot;Jenny walks the streets alone, she was fine, but she got kicked out of her home in hard times&amp;quot;, &amp;#039;Messed Up Kids&amp;#039;). Ditty &amp;#039;Storm Passes Away&amp;#039; is about the most Nashville he gets, closing with the kicker &amp;quot;They keep telling me I&amp;#039;m older than I&amp;#039;m supposed to be&amp;quot;... he does make a very fair point and working with Rick Rubin so soon hasn&amp;#039;t taken anything away from Jake Bugg; the album doesn&amp;#039;t feel overcooked and by moving out of his comfort zone, he&amp;#039;s found more to sing about and a more dynamic way of doing so - if anything, this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Same time next year, please.  Tracks to download: &amp;#039;Messed Up Kids&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Simple Pleasures&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;A Song About Love&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Storm Passes Away&amp;#039;If you like this, you&amp;#039;ll like: Johnny Cash, Arctic Monkeys, Miles Kane Watch Jake Bugg&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Slumville Sunrise&amp;#039; video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/album-reviews/review/a530833/jake-bugg-shangri-la-album-review/>